There has been a lot of talk about whether or not the Amazon Kindle is “the iPod of books”. People who aren’t desperately trying to attract search traffic will tell you the truth – niether the Kindle nor any of its competitors are anywhere close to having the impact on the industry that the iPod has had.
But if you’re looking for a game changer, look at stuff like this. For $40 more than a Kindle, you get a full computer.
The specs, from their site:
- 9.4″ x 7″ x 1.4″ for 2 lbs (with keyboard)
- ARM Texas Instruments OMAP3 chip
- 1024×600 8.9” screen
- Storage: 8GB micro SD card
- Wifi 802.11b/g/n and Bluetooth
- 3-dimensional accelerometer
- Speakers, micro and headphone
- 6 USB 2.0 (3 internal, 2 external, 1 mini)
- 10h to 15 hours of battery life
Sure, there are netbooks out there for less money. But detaching the keyboard (or even not purchasing it, for $100 less) leaves you with a tablet with a ten hour battery. Sure, eInk ebook readers have a longer life between chargings, but how often are any of us away from a plug for more than ten hours?
You give up the ubiquitous internet connection and a bit of battery life that the Kindle offers, but you gain so much in openness and flexibility. You have a Linux-based operating system and a touchscreen. What more do you want from an ebook reader? It comes with WiFi and a web browser, so any ebook store that isn’t closed to the non-Kindle-owning-public like Amazon’s is easily accessible.
I want one of these.
I am curious, though, as to what they mean by “3-dimensional accelerometer”. It sounds like something the marketing department made up.
Thanks to Alex for pointing this out.
Ooh, shiny. And ten hours of battery life? Sounds tempting.
Is the OS actually a Linux variant, though? I couldn’t tell from what I read.
Yeah, it is Linux. If you start here and poke around, you eventually find that the OS is based on this, a Linux variant. Don’t know anything about it beyond that, though.